1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal printer suitable for application to a word processor or a typewriter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A thermal printer, for example, a thermal printer disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-26245, is a printer which prints characters, symbols and the like on a recording sheet by selectively fusing the reversible fusible ink contained in a thermal transfer ribbon interposed between the recording sheet and the thermal head by the heat generated by the thermal head.
Recently, such a thermal printer has been widely used as the output unit of business machines, such as word processors and electronic typewriters. In printing characters and symbols on such word processors and typewriters, misprinted characters and symbols need to be corrected. However, it has been difficult to erase characters and symbols misprinted on a recording sheet on a conventional ordinary thermal printer for correction. Accordingly, it has been necessary to correct misprinted characters and symbols through handwriting or to reprint the text on a new recording sheet, which often makes the corrections conspicuous and requires complicated correcting operation.